In the 24th Century, the United Federation of Planets has continued to expand and remain both a strategic and political power in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants of the Milky Way Galaxy. Encompassing over 8000 light-years of space, some 150 native intelligent species (including humanity) are Federation members, contributing to prolonged and mutual peace, justice, and harmony. Starfleet Command (based in the city of San Francisco on Earth) remains in charge of expanding and protecting the boundaries of the Federation as well as continuing its primarily humanitarian and ambassadorial roles, while keeping other non-allied species at bay such as the Romulan Star Empire, Cardassian Union, and the Ferengi Alliance. Since the signing of the Khitomer Accords nearly 80 years earlier, the Klingon Empire has become less hostile towards the Federation, though the peaceful relationship can still be tested at times.

Starfleet’s newest flagship, the U.S.S. Enterprise-D (the fifth Federation vessel to bear the name), is a Galaxy-class starship dispatched on an extended mission of solitary deep-space exploration, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

The U.S.S. Enterprise (registry number NCC-1701-D), like all her previous namesakes, is a long-range exploration vessel. The new Galaxy-class starships are considered the pinnacle of decades of technological development by Starfleet, featuring breakthroughs in warp field physics, deflector shield resistance, hull design, construction materials and methods, environmental control, computer advancement, weapons progression, and sensor efficiency. The Galaxy-class is also something of a radical experiment in ship-board life. For the first time ever, immediate members of crew-members’ families (including young children) are allowed to live aboard, experiencing adventure in a way never possible before. As such, a Galaxy-class starship is considered by some to be a mobile, living city-in-space, now powered not just by its advanced matter/antimatter warp reactor core and nuclear fusion generators, but by the support and love of those close by. Incorporating a large civilian population (many of whom serve in professions of their own which can contribute to the mission of the ship at times, such as botany, geology, and some technology research fields) is a breathtaking accomplishment in starship design, although some question the validity of putting non-essential personnel aboard such powerful vessels in direct danger during hostile action or other unexpected situations that could potentially put the ship at risk. The knowledge that the Galaxy-class are some of the most advanced and powerful starships in two quadrants of the Milky Way Galaxy, however, can easily push some of those fears aside.

Previously considered only a one-time emergency procedure, Galaxy-class starships are in a unique position of being able to separate themselves into two halves where need-be. In the past when a starship’s warp core threatened to explode, the saucer-like Primary Hull could be disengaged and operate under its own power to escape to a safe distance from the massive explosion. While a new emergency system allows the warp core itself to be disconnected and ejected though an explosive egress hatch on the bottom of the Engineering Hull, for tactical reasons the saucer separation-idea was carried through, but now can be reversed just as easily by the crew within minutes after a threatening situation has been resolved.

U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)

With the exception of the Navigational Deflector Array on the front of the Engineering Section, any transparent plastic, and the display stand(s), all surfaces have been painted or have had decals pre-applied.

No assembly needed out of the box (though you may want to check the three AAA and three LR44 demo batteries). Both battery compartments will need to be opened so that the two halves can be switched from Try Me Mode to the standard Play Mode. Note: there is no dedicated On/Off switch anywhere on the exterior of either Section.

Additionally, five tiny plugs have been included in the box, which can fill the display stand holes along the bottom of both Sections. (I will never use the pegs on mine because, well… how the hell do you get them out of there!?)

The Saucer Section is held tightly to the Battle Section via built-in magnets hidden across the top of the neck, so removal and reassembly is very easy, with three small immovable tabs to make sure everything lines up correctly once she is recombined. (Since the gray of the hull has been painted on, I fear that over time, when removed and reattached, the tabs will scratch the paint…)

Saucer Section

Battle Section

A multi-part display stand is included. Once the Enterprise is clipped on, the ball-and-socket joint allows for flexible posing. Because the Enterprise-D can perform a saucer separation, however, the display stand actually splits apart as well to reveal a smaller stand within! This way, both the Saucer Section and Engineering Section can be displayed separately at the same time.
Unlike some of Diamond Select Toy’s previous Starship Legends releases (specifically their four TOSU.S.S. Enterprise sets), extra large hull pieces are not included to swap out so that the holes for the stands can be hidden.

Anytime the Bridge dome atop the Saucer Section is pressed, several colored LEDs activate in pre-programmed sequence, accompanied by a selection of sound clips taken directly from the television series. The blue Navigational Deflector Array, red Main Impulse Engine, and paired red Bussard Collectors are always on regardless of which audio clip is playing. However, both the Bridge dome and Warp Engine Nacelle grilles pulse on-and-off with the syllables in the clips.

The following clips are always played in this order, with the only voice heard being that of Captain Jean-Luc Picard [actor (now Sir) Patrick Stewart]:

“Continual fire, all phasers!” (Red Alert klaxon heard in background at same time, then sound-effect of multiple Phaser shots)

“Damage report!”

“Warp nine, engage!” (Followed by sound of the Enterprise going to warp speed)

“--and to make sure that history never forgets the name… Enterprise.”

Additionally, when you separate the Enterprise, you will hear Captain Picard say-

“Prepare for emergency Saucer Sep[aration]” (followed by the sound of the docking latches releasing)

-and when re-attaching, the docking latches-effect will play again.

When the Saucer Section is separated, only the highlighted effects listed above play. The Engineering Section has no speaker or unique audio/visual effects of its own.
Also, if you press and hold down the Bridge dome button for five seconds, all of the audio effects will play once in the order listed above.

As a bonus, if you press down on a small gray button along the lower spine of the Engineering Section, all the lights in the set will turn on, but no sound will play. This way, the Enterprise can be put into a Display Mode with its lights running continuously until you press it again! (Just remember that they’re on; there is no automatic cut-off timer, so it will run until the batteries dry up hours later!)
Finally, the Saucer Section can be removed in Display Mode and the lights on both Sections will remain on. Whether separated in Display Mode or not, the saucer’s own two Impulse Engines will momentarily turn themselves off until after an audio clip finishes playing, and then turn back on.

Though my father was able to experience “Star Trek: The Original Series” back in the late-1960s, I got my bug from his continued enthusiasm and then eventually the feature films from 1983 onwards. (Ironically, I never got the chance to see TOS with my own eyes until 2009!). Then, despite average ratings for the films (it was really a niche market they were aiming for, after all…), series creator Gene Roddenberry got his second shot in 1986 to do it right with “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. With a far larger television budget this time, and the unusual advantage of already having a ravenous pre-established cult fan-base in place, Roddenberry was able to finally express his ideas to a larger audience. While still taking place in the same universe, TNG was a more serious story set about 80 years in the future after TOS and all of the TOS-related movies (“Star Trek…” I through VI), which allowed for a clean slate, but then it was able to reference much of the earlier work as historical fact. Star Trek as a whole, unfortunately, has never been quite able to reclaim the pop culture status it enjoyed during the run of TNG… Getting back on topic, I was hooked at an early age, and the ability for the franchise to sustain itself for so long means it has stayed with me throughout my entire life. (Not that I have a problem with this, of course!)
On CollectionDX, Star Trek is my “old school”.

I remember that I got just a few toys from TNG’s initial run- some 3.5” first-season figures of Captain Picard and Commander Riker (actor/director Jonathan Frakes), and a 6” die-cast metal Enterprise-D (which, by the way, actually used designer Andrew Probert’s original pale-blue colors rather than the typical gray-hull colors we saw on TV). I had an Enterprise toy! (Well… I also had a 3” die-cast and PVC refit-Enterprise, but the nacelles kept breaking off, dammit!) Sadly, the metal hooks needed to keep the saucer attached broke off early, so I always had to hang onto it in strange ways. Later on, I had wanted a larger light-and-sound-equipped Playmates Toys version of the Ent-D because it was a gigantic 16” toy(!), but sadly that never happened.
Then, in 2008, I became aware of the cheap-but-good-quality replicas being made by Art Asylum and Diamond Select Toys. Having never really been a model maker (I tried a few times when I was younger, but lacked resources by sinking it all into Power Rangers, Transformers, etc…), this was the opening that I had been waiting literally decades for, and you know what? IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT.

DST’s version is more-or-less exactly the same size as the [four!?] 16” toy version(s) that Playmate Toys made, which in my opinion is a perfect scale (1/1500?) to put the words “big toy replica” together. It’s big enough to see the details and express the massive size of the ship, while still being lightweight enough to be carried in one hand (as kids tend to do with their toys as they fly them about the house). Make no mistake, however, that the set being reviewed here is absolutely NOT a toy. It is unquestionably a collector’s item specifically for sitting on a shelf and being looked at.

The biggest giveaway is that entire ship has been painted! Not just the phaser strips, transporter emitter pads, escape pod hatch doors, and hundreds of viewports, and other innumerable details, but every single surface you see has been painted. The exceptions to this being the parts that glow- warp engine grilles, Bussard collectors, Impulse Engines, and Nav Deflector. In a word: amazing! That being said, one major detail that was omitted- and a lot of people (including myself) have complained about- was that none of the viewports on the front/sides of the neck were included. While panel lining was stamped on, it is not nearly that stark on any other Ent-D replica, model, or even in the series itself. Now, DST did correct this problem with their release of the same-scale upgrade version of the ship seen in the series-finale episode, “All Good Things…”, but the problem there was that it was mostly covered up by some of the hull changes that occurred with that alternate-future timeline version of the ship. (Additionally, some online fan sites have produced unauthorized custom-made decals that you can apply to the neck of this set to correct the problem if you wish.)
Speaking of detailing, there are two words that make any Trekkie go absolutely weak in the knees when they think about starship replicas relating to any Enterprise: “Aztec pattern”. What is this? When the refit-Enterprise debuted in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979), one of the ways that director Robert Wise and the special-effects team made the ship look “realistic” was to add a vague layer of patterned lines across the entire hull to replicate the seams between hull panels during construction. (After all, these ships aren’t built in one piece!) These lines and patches were referred to during the filming model’s construction as the “Aztec pattern”, and the name stuck. Since then, every single Starfleet ship has had some type of construction-panel hull layer added to it. To do so takes an enormous amount of work, even with the advent of CGI, but it is one of those many sick little details that Trekkies crave and lends just that much credibility to the science-fiction aspect of the franchise. Ladies and gentlemen: this set has the Aztec pattern! To differentiate it visually on this set from the deflector shield grid (which is a whole other animal), the Aztec lines have been raised rather than carved into the plastic or painted on. While not visible unless under close scrutiny, even having the pattern present is just that much more jaw-dropping!
Something else that the Playmates Toys’ replicas never attempted was the saucer separation; a feature usually reserved only for models that required assembly. Now, not only can a big representation of the ship separate easily (I doubt the magnets will weaken much… unless you drop it, in which case the whole thing will break), but the Saucer Section carries its own independent power source for lights and sound, AND the replica is ‘smart’ enough to know when it’s separated or not! Now, this comes at two separate prices, both of which are also common complaints from collectors. The first is the single white LED inside the Bridge dome is sooooo bright that it even leaks through the painted plastic! The other, which is more common among some of DST’s other audible Star Trek products, is that, even though the voice and sound effects are all genuine copies to the TV series, they play at either too high a pitch or too slow. (The consensus among customers seems to uncover two distinct versions: high-pitched, or plays too slow. Mine happens to be the higher-pitched one…) For the most part, I can ignore the pitch of the sound effects, but that LED under the bridge is just ridiculous. (You’d think there was a method DST could use to turn down the intensity of the LED bulbs during manufacturing…)
As to the selection of audio clips, I think they are fine, but I kind of miss the multi-button approach Playmates Toys used in their first version of the ship. While having no less than 17 sound-effects taken directly from the series is awesome, I kind of wish I had a little more choice is which one played next instead of being limited by having just one button. Oh, well.
I really liked the compacted display stand- having one stacked inside the other is simply brilliant. I do wonder, though, how long the friction in those ball-and-socket joints will last to keep the combined vessel upright…

I actually wrote out a really long conclusion about nostalgia begging me to get this replica, but I decided maybe I’ve said enough. I give my highest recommendations for this set! The Starship Legends U.S.S. Enterprise-D is a beautiful centerpiece to any sci-fi collector’s shelves, and will make any Trekkie drool on the spot. Just… don’t give it to any kids, and don’t drop it, okay?

I wasn't even thinking about getting this until you mentioned that "Tea: Earl Grey-Hot" was one of the phrases. Now I might consider it. Betweent this and Galactus, sound chips are getting better and better.

EVA you are usually 100% right with all your research and comments, but this paragraph there's a bunch of stuff that is incorrect. Keep in mind I am not much of a ST fan and I may be wrong on some small details.

"(Ironically, I never got the chance to see TOS with my own eyes until 2009!).
That is a crime man. I hope you liked them.

Then, despite average ratings for the films (it was really a niche market they were aiming for, after all…),

The Star Trek films of the 70's-80's were not aimed at a "niche market" - TNG (especially after it's 3-4 season) was... Star Trek II - IV were each in the Top 10 grossing films the years they came out. Top 10 successes with everyone, not just ST fans. These were films aimed squarely at the same general public as the 2010 film. And the awesome/bad Star Trek V - which is today considered a "bomb" and is often refered to as a failure - was a big financial and merch success. Even ST:TMP - again a "bomb" - made a huge profit for Paramount, even despite combining $20million from the aborted "Phase II" TV budget. It was the 4th most successful film of 1979! The "average" ratings you refer to are the reviews of the day, and modern reviews... not what was going on back in the day at all!

series creator Gene Roddenberry got his second shot in 1986 to do it right with “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. With a far larger television budget this time, and the unusual advantage of already having a ravenous pre-established cult fan-base in place, Roddenberry was able to finally express his ideas to a larger audience.

He actually got his "2nd shot" in the 70's with "Phase II" (look it up there's lots of cool info out there) - and the film series that followed. The TNG show only happened because of STIV's incredible success, and the small budget-to-big-profit ratio that the previous three features had. Even the set costs of TNG were to be folded into STV's budget if the show failed. STV even re-uses a lot of the sets and props of TNG. This went further into sharing actors and more props with STVI...

He had been playing with this larger audience since 1979, and TNG was, again, more a result of ST's incredible popularity, than something like what you say a "furor created by the show." TNG was the result of the movies success, not the other way around.

...Star Trek as a whole, unfortunately, has never been quite able to reclaim the pop culture status it enjoyed during the run of TNG…

I beg to differ man. TOS was a pop-culture smash in the 60's, and especially into the 70's, far more popular with the general public and children than TNG was. It spawned a pop culture phenomenon on a scale that TNG never could compete with- millions of model kits in the 60's-70's... millions and millions sold. Also the show pretty much jump-started the entire TV syndication market into overdrive in the mid-70's. While I wasn't alive in the 60's I know plenty of over 50 guys who have been hardcore fans since the 60's.

TNG was - and still is - one of the highest rated cable shows of all time... it's 90's and current pop culture status is much more with comic and SF fans than with the general public.

It's definitely an age thing- ask anyone under 30 and TNG is their experience, over 30, TOS is theirs.

Sorry for another long comment, but it's important that you know that TNG is not the only "success" in the series, and was much more aimed at the traditional ST nerd "niche" audience, and as far as making money and public awareness, didn't even come close to the pop culture phenom of Spock and his ears. How many Picard bald caps did you see for Halloween? ;)

Also don't forget that between the original Star Trek TV show and the movies there was the Star Trek cartoon that aired for a couple of years featuring almost all of the original actors playing the voices of their characters.

I was surprised how good some of the TOS episodes were- occasional good drama and action despite the unavoidable cheapness and cheese of the series at-large.

I understand that the films were all successful in their own rights at the time of their release. If they hadn't been, they would've stopped making them!
When writing this, I was more concerned keeping focus on how TNG came to be, rather than the franchise at large. I know that "Phase II" was the second chance, but that evolved into TMP, which I wanted to avoid getting into because that deals with the movies, not TNG itself. Please understand that I had to do a lot of condensing & paraphrasing above so that I didn't take up TOO much space! (When I get around to reviewing [a] refit-Enterprise- of which I have one in my sights as i write this!- I will delve more into the "Phase II" aspects as it is more relevant there.) I was trying to say that TNG was the way to get the world exposed to a weekly TV series a second time because Star Trek hadn't been on the air since 1969. (Yes, I did forget about TAS, but considering that almost none of it is canon...)

Unfortunately, I do not have a full understanding of marketing trends from anywhere before around 1990, so I may have misrepresented that.
I was also under the impression that, while liked enough to become a cult classic which evolved into pop culture, TOS was not well known- beyond Trekkies themselves- during its initial run in the 60s, gaining its main popularity through reruns and word-of-mouth.

Perhaps I did phrase it wrongly when I said TNG elevated the franchise above anything that came before it. I was trying to say it was one of the very few Cinderella stories in Hollywood which surpassed its predecessor (TOS specifically) rather than simply matching it.

Please believe me, The Big R, when I say I am quite aware of many of the behind-the-scenes and trivia of Star Trek from before TNG, but a lot of that was unnecessary for the sake of this review. I will gladly admit humility and say I am not a top expert in trivia, but I feel I have a good enough grasp to be able to sort out what was and was not needed for this review.
I thank you, regardless, for your clarifications. Some of this I was not aware of!

Nice review, I've always wanted a display set of all the Enterprises right up to "E" in the same scale but that seems pretty hard to get with the larger ships being in the smaller scale. As far as I know, it's been awhile since I've built any Star Trek models so maybe there was a release of all the Enterprises with-in the same scale. Still the Enterprise "D" is one of the most iconic space ships out there, along with the original, Millennium Falcon, and X-Wing ships in my opinion.

I'm holding off on DST's Ent-E in case they re-release an updated version that deals with the FAIL'd warp nacelle grilles I've heard about.
Next in my sights are the TWoK Phaser & refit-Ent. However, as a new refit-Ent is being made now, I may hold on that as well. We know for certain an Excelsior is on the way (I wouldn't want the Ent-B, despite it's name), as well as a Klingon BoP.

I think an American modeling company made a bunch of in-scale Enterprise sets (TOS through -E) in the 90s, but the refit and TOS were too big even then.
I think the small-scale refit-Enterprises that Playmates Toys recently made in 2009 are in-scale with the DST Ent-D here, but I haven't seen them for a while so I'm not sure.

I must say that I had some mixed feelings about the starship & TNG series all the way back to Seasons 1 & 2. I always felt that the Enterprise D as an intergalactic luxury liner version of the MV Boudicca. As I reminiscent about this, I've felt that the early seasons of TNG had this whimsy, pitch vibe as The Love Boat in Space. In other words, it was much like "Star Trek Meets The Love Boat" kind of show.

Not that it was a bad thing for me since that I've found it quite a delightful format to watch. Then the vibe had faded away as the show progressed into a boring, meticulous drama with slow, boring elevator music, slow-paced situations, and heavy techno-babble which explains Jonathan (Riker) Frakes & Brent(Data)Spiner's heavy gaspings from all that babble-talk. Only the Enterprise D remained for the entire series as a souvenir from that Love Boat vibe until it sort of resurfaced from the TNG movies.

Anyway, yeah...Enterprise D I always liked, but there's currently a part of me that finds it hard to believe that a design like that suits as government attire for exploring the final frontier if not defending the known frontier like The UFP always does. It just sticks out as The Loooove Boooaat! to me. Perhaps I wouldn't feel this way if TNG didn't had parents & kids on board...especially Wesley Crusher.

I don't have any of TNG on DVD (I want to someday so I can review 'em!), but I did get the "Star Trek Generations: Special Collector's Edition" boxed set (I have all of them, BTW), and it was there that my eyes were really opened as to many of the behind-the-scenes ideas from the show (even though the commentary obviously focused on the movie itself), including the audacity of having families aboard, and the constrictions of television writing, production, & editing. Series/movie writers Ron Moore & Brannon Braga had some great insight during their commentary, and it helped bring me forward quite a bit from the nostalgic-child worship point of view I'd had up to that point into what I have today.

Nowadays, I look on the franchise as a whole- including the 2009 reboot- and I realize that it has lost something significant that it had during TOS. While stuff like Okudagrams & Westmore aliens & Zimmerman's work maintain this, the thing that [Starfleet at least] has changed is form-over-function (something I brushed on in my TOS Phaser video).
TOS Art Director Matt Jefferies was very deliberate from an engineering standpoint to make the Enterprise as 'realistic' as possible. While she may not have been designed to regularly travel in atmosphere, a smooth hull still makes sense. Simple geometric shapes & curves were used. And while this may look dated only because she was created in the '60s, the Enterprise and everything aboard her was practical. While everything that came after maintained the science aspects of TOS, the visual style(s) changed dramatically.
I've read online that at the premier of TMP, Jefferies fell asleep because it was so visually un-stimulating, and then he intentionally never saw any of the films afterwords for the same reason. (Whether this is true or not I cannot say!)

I agree that with each iteration the Enterprise became more "luxurious" and maybe a little softer than the last version with just more "stuff" but I think that's just natural progression, look at cars nowadays. I do think that it lost that certain military purposeful look and became all round and soft and like some people say became a luxury liner. It came back to it's roots somewhat with the Enterprise "E" but that ship gets trashed in every movie it's in and with no more ST-TNG movies coming out it's a dead design. I will say though out of every Star Trek series released my favorite is still DS9, especially the last few seasons and the Defiant is a ship that actually suits a military/exploration organization like Starfleet.

I'm gonna put on my big time Star Trek nerd hat to address the notion about the ships getting softer and more luxurious. :-)

The Enterprise is a favorite ship of mine. Right up there with the Yamato/Argo. In fact, I just purchased a new book about her called an "Owners' Workshop Manual". It covers all the ships to bear the name Enterprise. And if you look at them all, from the NX-01 to the E, all the ships have been functional and militaristic. The D is the clear exception.

It was all about timing. The D was launched in 2363, during a period of unprecedented peace. The Khitomer Accords ended hostilities with the Klingons in 2293. And the Treaty of Algernon in 2311 secured the border with the Romulans. So that's 50-70 years of peace (the Dominion and Borg were unknown at this time). Enough time to cause a major shift in thinking, resulting in civilians aboard Starfleet ships. And a move towards longer missions.

The D was designed to go up to 7 years without visiting a starbase for refurbishment. To keep the crew relaxed during such a long mission, pastel colors, muted lighting, quieter work spaces (no pings and bleeps on the bridge!), and more luxurious materials (wood on the bridge) were used.

Note that the E was designed specifically to fight the Borg, and it's interior reflects that. That bridge is all business (back to gunmetal and such). So the "softness" of the D was a one-time thing. And the B and C ships had the same general vibe as the original.

Oh, I completely agree with all of that. But, as I stated, the Galaxy-class was the experiment.

Considering that three of the original six ships (Galaxy, Enterprise, & Yamato) were destroyed within the first seven years of their debut (for various reasons, of course) would have been a good reason for Starfleet to pull back the civilian hospitality, whether implementing new stratagem for the Borg and Dominion-or-not. The Galaxy-class was definitely a luxury cruise liner in Starfleet, no doubt there. To even be posted to one of these ships was both a great privilege & honor!

And really, japester, when I said "form-over function", I was simply talking visual design for a TV series or movie, not practicality in Starfleet's eyes!

"Did I just start a bomb debate? Ohhh Boy!" Says Captain Archer, HA! Sorry, I just couldn't resist a corny nerd joke. Man, if what you've surmised is the case for Enterprise D, then I've failed to see why the D crew bother to go to Risa for R&R in the first place. It's the most luxurious pleasure planet in the Alpha Quadrant. A ship like Enterprise D with all the condiments of a luxury liner would probably make any crew member too complacent to go for a holiday retreat. I mean they got The Holodeck for peace's sake. Who needs Risa when you got a Galaxy-Class starship? Not Reginald Barclay that's for sure b/c he's married to a Holodeck.

I take it you've never been on a luxury liner? LOL. I have, and I can tell you that after a few days you BEG to get off, even if just to stretch your legs. Now if you were on that liner for a few years......

Oh I agree that at the time the "D" came out it was a for the most part a time of peace, but still it was a exploration vessle that is suppose to chart unknown parts of the Galaxy so who knows what new dangers they could face. I know having family on board for such a long time was an experiment and to keep crew happy plus I think it was a little bit of arrogance on Starfleets part since at the time they thought they were pretty much at the top and could handle any situation. Which unfortunately the Romulans, Q and the Borg taught them a hard lesson. Still the "D" is one of my favorite ships ever.

I don't know about the Amazon price, but it wouldn't surprise me much. Since DST started making these, they are cheap-yet-good quality replicas, and these are TREKKIES we're talking about here, it's no surprise that the aftermarket for these are through the roof.

You can bet that with the arrival of the Excelsior (Ent-B, I still don't know?) and Klingon Bird of Prey coming in 2011, they will be vacated from the shelves even faster!

Christmas, man. Everything blows up in price in the weeks before christmas. Take a look at how much even things like Lion Voltrons were going for. ST stuff blows up in price every year around this time. Crazy!